Just rubbish? Examining the concerns and attitudes of pharmacists to pharmaceuticals entering the environment

Introduction.Pharmaceuticals entering the environment have a cumulative negative effect on human health and wildlife (Daughton & Ruhoy, 2008). Aims. To explore if an individual’s level of environmental concern regarding the impact of pharmaceuticals entering the environment is a predictor of their environmental attitude. Methods. A purposive sample of 41 pharmacists and 25 pharmacy technicians (n = 66) working in five hospitals in Brisbane, Australia, first completed the 15-item NEP scale questionnaire (to determine their environmental attitude) and then answered the question, ‘How concerned are you personally about pharmaceuticals entering the environment?” Results. A two-sample t-test was used to determine if there was a statistically significant association between participants’ concern and environmental attitude. Equality of variances between the two groups ‘Concerned’ and ‘Not Concerned’ was checked using Levene’s test, and equality was assumed to be the same (F = 0.181, p = 0.672). There was a statistically significant difference in mean NEP scores between concerned participants and participants who were not concerned (t62 = 2.342, p = 0.022). The mean NEP score was 3.631 points lower for participants who did not express concern regarding the impact of pharmaceuticals on the environment. Discussion. This study demonstrated that participants who reported being concerned about the impact of pharmaceuticals on the environment had a higher NEP score (a more pro-environmental attitude). Since environmental attitude influences pro-environmental behaviour, providing environmental knowledge to raise concern may indirectly influence pro-environmental behaviours in hospital pharmacy departments and warrants further investigation. Daughton, C. G., & Ruhoy, I. S. (2008). The Afterlife of Drugs and the Role of PharmEcovigilance. Drug Safety, 31(12), 1069-1082. doi:10.2165/0002018-200831120-0000